Mandrake has the magic SysRq key on by default.
On Saturday 13 April 2002 11:21 am, Charles Polisher wrote:
> On Apr 13, 2002 Patrick Stockton wrote:
> > When sitting at a text login at the actuall box for example I'll enter
> > the username and password and it'll stop moving. So I'll hit ALT+F3 to
> > get a different terminal and I get a black screen, no prompts. So I hit
> > ALT+F7 to get to my X windows and still get the black screen.
>
> That's one of the worst things that can happen!
>
> Does the caps-lock light on the keyboard blink
> when you press the capslock key? If it does,
> /something/ is still running in there.
>
> The "magic sysrq" key is your friend when the screen
> is blank. It's not hard to set up and use. You could
> at least sync the filesystem before rebooting. Check out
> sysrq.txt in /usr/src/linux/Documentation.
>
> Maybe the last bufferfull of the system logs
> has important clues but sadly are gone by the time you
> can get the system restarted.
>
> Some people hook up a serial console to get at these
> messages. Sometimes the serial console keeps talking
> even after vga-consoles and network access are dead.
> Docs for setting it up:
> /usr/src/linux/Documentation/serial-console-txt
> You can make a 2nd system pretend to be a serial
> terminal for example using a null modem (it's just
> a cable) and minicom. Maybe someone can lend you
> a small linux box for a few days.
>
> Getty (or mgetty) could be freaking out? I've spent
> many hours tracking down getty problems, but I can't
> remember anything that would help without a live
> console.
>
> Ingo Molnar used to have a crash-dump patch to the
> kernel, might even be incorporated with newer
> kernels? (kmsgdump if memory serves)
>
> Lastly, you might be able to tweak the log-level
> of messages that show up on the console.
>
> Best of luck.
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